Page 6 of The Nanny is Off Limits

I start to walk away when I hear a high-pitched, “Wait!”

I turn again and Isla is skipping toward me, away from her uncle who is watching us from several feet away. “I need a nanny.”

“I’m sorry?”

“A nanny! Daddy says I need one.”

“Isles, we can’t just ask random ladies in the store,” River says as he closes the distance between us, and I don’t miss the way his eyes look me over appreciatively. “Unless you’re interested.” I blink at him a few times hearing the double meaning. “My brother is interviewing. He’s going through a tough time right now. What with their mom…” He trails off and I remember vividly how hard my dad had it when my mom died.

I’m the oldest of three girls and I’d stepped into the role when she died because my dad couldn’t afford the help. We did okay, but I was old enough and he worked all the time which means I didn’t really have a social life until I went to college when I was nineteen.I’d only been there for a year when my middle sister, who was sixteen at the time, got pregnant and I dropped out of school to help and be there for her. I didn’t go back until two years later when I was twenty-one, and now at twenty-five, I’ve just graduated with a degree in psychology.

River clears his throat and finishes his sentence about Isla’s mother. “She passed away.”

I feel for this family in this situation. I look down at Isla who reminds me so much of my youngest sister who went down a very different path than our middle sister and is currently in her first year of college at Yale.I’ve been an au pair three times already, spending entire summers with families in their vacation homes and I just finished my last one to come back here and start graduate school. I wasn’t planning to be a nanny while I was in school. It’s a significant time commitment, but I wouldn’t hate the extra income either.

“I am actually…a nanny.” I look back and forth between them. “I was planning to take a break because I just started school.”

River’s eyes widen and he takes a step back before putting his hands up. “I’m sorry, I thought you were—I mean…”

“Oh, not undergrad. I delayed a few times. I’m twenty-five.”

A look of relief washes over him. “Great. Not that…it would have been bad, but the oldest is sixteen and I don’t know that an eighteen-year-old would have worked for that.” He laughs and my eyes widen at the thought of being a nanny to someone only nine years younger than me.

“She doesn’t really need a nanny. Although she does have a boyfriend and I sometimes worry she’ll get knocked up due to all the lack of supervision.”

Two girls. Sounds like this guy has his hands full.

“What’s knocked up?” Isla interjects while looking up at her uncle.

“Ask your dad,” he says before turning back to me, and I resist the urge to chuckle.

“I bet he’ll love that.” I bite my bottom lip. “Just two?”

He scratches the back of his neck and gives me a nervous look. “There’s a boy also. He’s ten.”

“Three?” I whistle and cross my arms over my chest. I don’t miss the way River’s eyes drop immediately toward the movement before moving back up to meet my gaze. “That is tough. He doesn’t have any help?”

“Me, when I can. Our parents live in Arizona and they come up when they can, but my brother didn’t want them to uproot their life.” He winces. “But he’s…drowning,” he says before his lips form a straight line.

I think about my dad and the sacrifices he made because he didn’t have any help raising us, and I think about the sixteen-year-old who is possibly being denied the chance to be a teenager because she’s having to help raise her two younger siblings. Then I think about her getting pregnant because no one is around to keep her—and more importantly, her hormones—in check.

“Okay, I’ll meet your brother.”

Okay, the Kincaids do not live like I did while I was growing up.I pull up to the massive house in the gated community in Potomac, which is not only one of the nicest cities in the state but in the country. I park in the circular driveway and note a four-car garage with three cars parked out front. A Maserati, an Audi, and a BMW. Next to them is a boy, who I assume is the son, washing one of them.

I get out of my car, alerting him to my presence, and when he looks up at me he drops his sponge in the bucket before making his way over. “Here for the nanny interview?” He looks so much like the uncle it makes me wonder how much the brother and the father look alike. I notice he seems a little on the taller side for ten years old.

“I am.”

He looks me over like he’s silently judging me. “You don’t look that old.”

“Thank you,” I say with a tiny curtsy.

“I just mean…the people that have been here…they’ve been older than my dad.” His cheeks pinken a little. “You’re just…younger.” He trips over his words and I know this narrative well. I’ve dealt with boys that have had crushes on me before, but that usually passes the second they realize I’m not a pushover and I make them finish their homework before they can do anything else.

“I see.” I point to my car. “You have time to do mine?”

“Sure,” he shrugs, “for twenty bucks.”

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